The third-year Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing driver from Hendersonville, Tenn., competing in a Honda Performance Development Piper DF-5, won the 2008 Formula Ford Festival (Kent class) as a Team USA Scholarship recipient. He spent a season racing in the British Formula Ford championship.

Newgarden noted the importance of the class in the motorsports development ladder.

“Formula F is one of those training grounds that should never go away,” he said. “Honda is obviously very involved in this and for them to invite me down here to do this, I can’t thank them enough.”

Munoz’s crew earns award

The No. 34 Cinsay AndrettiTV.com HVM crew won the Firestone Pit Stop Performance Award for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio with a total pit lane time of 86.192 seconds.

It is the team’s first award of the season and the fifth for Andretti Autosport in 2014. The crew will receive its $10,000 award during pre-race festivities at the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at Milwaukee IndyFest on Aug. 17.

Of note

Verizon IndyCar Series driver James Hinchcliffe, Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires championship points leader Gabby Chaves, veteran karter Alan Rudolph and three-time Rotax Grand Finals champion Ben Cooper will comprise the panel of judges to select four karters who will be awarded one-day tests in Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda cars. The winners will be announced at the GoRotax.com Rotax Pan Challenge Championships in mid-October. ... 8Star Motorsports announced it will complete in Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires in 2015.